Letter to Herald :published about 4/11/10

Editor

The Herald

200 Renfield St

Glasgow

G2 3QB

Dear Sir

The Browne Report and its somewhat amended implementation in the English university system from 2012 (as announced by the UK Government today) raise interesting policy challenges for the Scottish university system.

One is the issue of EU undergraduate students from outside the United Kingdom who attend UK universities. Until 2006, such students faced a level playing field between Scotland and England. Since 2006, they have paid a tuition fee of over £3000 per year to study in England; but de facto a zero tuition fee to study in Scotland.

If one compares the 1^st year enrolment of such students between 2005-2006 and 2008-2009, the numbers in England went up from 33700 to 37200, a rise of just over 9%; but the numbers in Scotland in the same time period went up from 4700 to 6400, a rise of 27%. On this evidence, geographically mobile EU students appear to be sensitive to price, a wholly unsurprising finding.  As a consequence, the equivalent of one large Scottish university is entirely populated with non-UK EU students; and the Scottish Government pays the teaching cost of their education in its entirety. (While tuition fees remain effectively zero for undergraduate Scottish students, the Scottish Government has no choice. It can, and does, discriminate against English students; but EU law does not allow it to discriminate against other EU countries).

Firstly, it does not take much imagination to see that, if post-2012 Scottish tuition fees remain effectively zero and English tuition fees rise as planned to up to £9000 per year, we are likely to see still more Scottish university places filled from elsewhere in the EU: all at the expense of the Scottish Government. This would be (unintended) altruism on a grand scale.

Secondly, what are usually described as “overseas” students (i.e. students from outside the EU) are not subject to a quota; but non-Scottish EU undergraduate students count for quota purposes in exactly the same way as Scottish students. In a system where that undergraduate numbers quota is firmly capped by the Scottish Government, each non-Scottish EU undergraduate student who is admitted to a Scottish university deprives an aspirant Scottish undergraduate of a university place.

None of what I have written is intended to be an attack on the presence of European students in Scottish universities. My intention is simply to point out that a major system change in England may have (as with many system changes) some quite large and unplanned effects in Scotland.

Iain Smith

127 Balshagray Avenue

Glasgow

G11 7EG

Tel  0141 563 3002

(414 words)